Florence Continues Gaining National Attention

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FLORENCE, Ala. (WHNT) - The Shoals continues to be thrust into the national and international spot-light on the pages of numerous publications.

Tourism officials say Florence is blossoming into the quintessential southern city inside fashion, art, and music circles.

Florence-Lauderdale Tourism Director Debbie Wilson held up printed pages of various articles Tuesday that have been written on a national level about Florence in the last week.

The latest national ranking came from Executive Travel magazine, which included Florence in its “Twelve Best Small Towns” list.

“We`re just very excited about all these articles, and this is just in the last week, that we`ve had over the last year, year and a half. It`s just kind of taken off,” stated Wilson.

In that year and a half, Rolling Stone magazine, The Huffington Post, and Garden and Gun magazine have praised Florence for its southern charm.

Wilson added fashion designer Billy Reid along with numerous recording artists like Alabama Shakes and The Civil Wars have played a large part in the attention.

“I really do think a lot of the local people, other than the people who are really involved like the Downtown Florence Unlimited, our group, the Tuscumbia group that does their downtown, are really kind of oblivious,” explained Wilson. “But that is what makes it so charming.”

Wilson went on to say this translates into a marketing and recruiting tool to court new businesses to the area.

According to Wilson, just last week the Muscle Shoals music scene was featured on CBS This Morning.

On October 4th, The Swampers are scheduled to be guests on The Late Show with David Letterman.